GREENTECH 2022

The fifth edition of the AIPH-approved horticultural technology show GreenTech welcomed 10,890  attendees from 121 countries; an attendence decrease of 12.8 per cent on 2019 figures, the pre-Corona year in which GreenTech held its last full in-person event. More than 500 greenhouse builders, horticultural engineering and lighting companies, substrate suppliers, service providers, trade associations and research institutes exhibited at the RAI Amsterdam convention centre between  14-16 June 2022.

Overcrowded parking lots, busy aisles, full booths and an exciting array of greenhouse technology were the rule of the day for the opening of the 5th annual GreenTech show. Mariska Dreschler, CEO of GreenTech, said: “We have had a fantastic start.”

Day one of the 2022 GreenTech show looked impressive, with a parade of new tech products and services for plant breeders, propagators, greenhouse growers and horticultural suppliers.

Award-winning picking robot Berry.

On the opening morning on 14 June, GreenTech celebrated its annual GreenTech Awards ceremony. Chairwoman of the jury, Liselotte de Vries from TU Delft AgTech Institute handed out awards in two categories: Concept and Innovation. Crowned winner in the first category was Organifarms for BERRY, a harvesting robot for strawberries. In the Innovation category biocontrols Biobest from Belgium scooped up the coveted award for Micromus, a generalist predator for protected crops.

De Vries praised the holistic, interdisciplinary design approach of all contestants. She said, “This year we received submissions with a wide variety, which is exciting to see after the past challenging years. The jury looked at biological, production, and digitisation technologies. A selection of these were nominated for the Innovation and Concept Awards.”

She took the time to laud the winners. “The Concept and Innovation Award laureats won based on their product and also based on their professional presentations. Both briefed the jury, providing a high level of details, based on facts and figures, and a very concrete insight into their product, company and business plans. We encourage future submissions to follow this level of professionalism.”

Organifarms’ strawberry-picking robot is capable of detecting and assessing the position, ripeness, and quality of the fruit. BERRY allows for a safe harvest of the strawberries placing them directly into punnets where there are weighed and ready for sale.

Stand Biobest at the 2022 GreenTech show.

In turn, Biobest deserves credit for yet another sustainable tool for the control of pests in protected cropping. Their award-winning brown lacewing Micromus angulatus is a generalist predator feeding on all common aphid species found in protected crops such as vegetable, soft fruit, medicinal cannabis and ornamental crops. Both larvae and adults prey on aphids.

Speaking at GreenTech’s awards ceremony/opening event was Mariam Bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She encouraged those present to get in touch with the government officials, business entrepreneurs and growers that on the occasion of GreenTech visited the Netherlands’ horticulture industry.  Touting GreenTech the ideal platform to forge partnerships, and share knowledge in the face of today’s challenges, the Minister explained that in the UAE’s desert-like and water-scarce environment, the government and the private sector are looking into innovation and technology. In this context one of the pertinent questions to answer is what kind of food to grow in the UAE harnessing the power of technology.  She added that currently the UAE has many agtech companies using Dutch technology.

Her Excellency Sheikha Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE’s Minister of Climate Change and the Environment led a high-level business delegation that visited a cross-section of Dutch horticultural companies and the GreenTech show.

This year marked GreenTech’s return to the first full physical formats in three years. Three adjoining halls provided an unrivalled opportunity to view the latest greenhouse technology, primarily designed with fruits and vegetable production in mind, but making an impact in ornamental horticulture too. Visitors meet a full spectrum of suppliers with a wealth of innovation and expertise from robotics, lighting, energy screens, water management, sensors, adaptive greenhouse design, 3D crop modelling, growing media,  and machinery.

Now that the price of energy, and other goods such as steel, packaging and peat have soared in many countries, cost-saving techniques were the focus of this year’s GreenTech.

Over the 3-day event, there were educational sessions on ‘Happy Food Happy Flowers, Vegetables, soft fruits, flowers, herbs and new crops’, ‘Water, energy and automation solutions’, and the ‘Latest trends and developments on vertical farming and medicinal cannabis’.

The GreenTech programme included several side-events. The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) announced the finalists of the International Grower of the Year (IGOTY) Awards 2022 during an  awards ceremony on 14th June 2022.

GreenTech director Mariska Dresschler and her team deserve credit of keeping the GreenTech buzz going, even in challenging Covid-19 times. In the first year of the pandemic, GreenTech hosted what was arguably one of the the best virtual events in horticulture. An impressive line up of keynote speakers provided in depth content on many aspects of greenhouse growing and as such encouraged and restored business opportunities among the industry’s stakeholders. The same applies to the recalibrated 2021 GreenTech show, occupying one big hall in the RAI and marking a very good, albeit modest come-back.

Next year, GreenTech will run between 13-15 June 2023. For more information visit www.greentech.nl

GreenTech’s Concept Award winners.